Studies in the News is a very current compilation of items significant to the Legislature and Governor's Office. It is created weekly by the
State Library's Research Bureau to supplement the public policy debate in California’s Capitol. To help share the latest information with
state policymakers, these reading lists are now being made accessible through the State Library’s website. This week's list of current
articles in various public policy areas is presented below.

Service to State Employees:

When available, the URL for the full text of each item is provided.

California State Employees may contact the State Information & Reference Center
(916-654-0206;
cslsirc@library.ca.gov) with the SITN issue number and the item number [S#].

All other interested individuals should contact their local library - the items may be available there, or
may be borrowed by your local library on your behalf.

[“The decision clears the way for states to pass new laws designed to discourage women from having abortions. In a 5-4 ruling, the court said the ‘government has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.’ It was the first time the court upheld a ban on an abortion procedure. Though [the] opinion does not overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, the majority said it was prepared to uphold new restrictions on doctors who perform them and women who seek them.” Los Angeles Times (April 19, 2007) 1.]

[“Nationally, women made up 27 percent of new AIDS cases in 2005, up from 8 percent in 1985. Minority women are particularly hard hit across the country, with African American women 24 times more likely than white women to contract HIV. AIDS was the leading cause of death for African American women 25 to 34 years old in 2004. And black and Latina women accounted for 82 percent of female AIDS diagnoses in 2004, despite representing only a fourth of U.S. women.”
San Francisco Chronicle (March 9, 2007) 1.]

[“Of particular concern to team members is the sharp rise in the number of teenagers killed by firearms in homicides and suicides in 2005. Murder and suicide -- by guns and other means -- accounted for 57 percent of teen deaths in Sacramento County. Another disturbing statistic in the report: the number of children killed by abuse and neglect doubled in Sacramento County between 2004 and 2005.... The study also found that the rate of SIDS -- or sudden infant death syndrome -- fell dramatically for two years in a row.” Sacramento Bee (March 6, 2007) B1.]

[“The growth in health spending was twice the rate of inflation in 2005, resulting in constant pressure on government, employers, and consumers to keep up. Total spending on health reached $2 trillion in 2005 and is projected to reach one-fifth of the gross domestic product by 2016; per person spending on health care increased 77% between 1995 and 2005); the growth rate for prescription drug spending is at its lowest level in 20 years; and while out-of-pocket costs for consumers continue to rise, their share of all health care spending (15%), has declined.” Press Release (April 17, 2007) 1.]

[“Our case studies showed that existing IT systems can help hospitals gather some quality data but are far from enabling hospitals to automate the abstraction process. The limitations reported by officials in the case study hospitals included ... the inability of some IT systems to access related data stored in another IT system in the same hospital, which required hospital staff to access each IT system separately to obtain related pieces of information.”]

[“The Bush administration had a jumble of studies and vague policy statements but no overall strategy to ensure that privacy protections would be built into computer networks linking insurers, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. The administration had taken only rudimentary steps to safeguard sensitive personal data that would be exchanged over the network. The accountability office said doubts about privacy could slow the adoption and use of electronic medical records.” New York Times (February 18, 2007) 1.]

[“A new study finds that a majority of Californians say the state should guarantee that everyone has health insurance. Moreover, about six in 10 Californians say the state should guarantee that all children have health insurance.”]

[“The percentage of AIDS cases for Latinos in Los Angeles County has increased, from 20% of all new cases in the 1980s, when the epidemic began, to 43% in 2002.... A majority of Los Angeles County primary care practitioners are failing to advise their Latino patients -— who are at high risk for HIV infection —- to get tested.... This study shows how Latinos already in primary care aren't getting the advice they need." Los Angeles Times (March 2, 2007) 1.]

["Among states, California was the eighth-most-expensive for nursing-home care at $87,845 a year. Care in a nursing home or other long-term facility is more expensive in San Francisco than in any other city in California.... The study focused on a range of services that go under the heading of long-term care, from nursing-home services to home health assistance." San Francisco Chronicle (April 4, 2007) 1.]

[“A federal appeals court upheld the U.S. government's authority to prosecute medical marijuana patients in California, but left open the possibility that a gravely ill patient could defend against criminal charges by showing that marijuana was her only shield against excruciating pain or death. Ruling in a case that reached the Supreme Court two years ago, the [Court] rejected an Oakland woman's last constitutional challenge to the use of federal drug laws against medical marijuana patients -- that it violates the fundamental right to preserve one's life and be free of severe pain.” San Francisco Chronicle (March 15, 2007) 1.]

["Armed with a new study showing the drug can ease pain in some HIV patients, medical-marijuana advocates sued the federal government over its claim that pot has no accepted medical uses.... California is one of 11 states that have made marijuana legal for people with a doctor's recommendation. But because the U.S. government does not recognize pot's medical benefits, federal authorities can still arrest patients." San Francisco Chronicle (February 22, 2007) 1.]

[“California's medical marijuana law doesn't protect card-carrying patients from being stopped and searched by police who detect the presence of the drug. The 1996 initiative legalizing medical marijuana, Proposition 215, shields patients only from being convicted of growing or possessing cannabis for their health.... In upholding the search, the appellate panel cited a 2002 California Supreme Court ruling that said medical marijuana patients were not immune from arrest but could use their status as grounds for dismissal of charges or as a defense at trial.” San Francisco Chronicle (March 23, 2007) 1.]

[‘When it comes to Medicaid, where you live makes all the difference. People living in Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Washington have the most health care options on Medicaid. But residents of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wyoming have the least.... Massachusetts had the top-ranked Medicaid program in the country, followed by Nebraska, Vermont, Alaska and Wisconsin.”
The Washington Times (April 20, 2007) C08.]

[“This report concludes that because of recent policy and administrative changes, the department’s Provider Enrollment Branch has seen a decrease in the number of applications it receives from providers seeking to enroll in Medi-Cal; however, the branch does not process some applications within the time specified by statute. “]

[“Between 2000 and 2004, the number of employed RNs in the U.S. grew by 10 percent, with a total of 2.4 million RNs employed in nursing in 2004. Most of the increase occurred in hospitals and ambulatory care settings; the extent of employment growth varied widely among states.... GAO recommends that the Secretary of HHS identify specific steps and a time frame for implementing an empirical methodology for identifying health care facilities with a critical shortage of nurses.”]

["This report concludes that although Health Services promptly created the reimbursement rate and fee systems, it
experienced an eight-month delay in calculating the new reimbursement rates and applying them to claims submitted by
facilities.... In addition, we are concerned
about Health Services’ continued reliance on contracted services to maintain and update the new reimbursement rate
system."]

[“Federal health officials impose only minimal penalties on nursing homes repeatedly cited for mistreatment of patients. As a result, some nursing homes cycle in and out of compliance with federal standards and pose a continued threat to the health and safety of patients. Members of Congress are likely to use the report as a map for legislation requiring stiffer penalties for the most serious violations. Administration officials said they would ask Congress for the power to collect fines more swiftly, without waiting for all appeals to be resolved.”
New York Times (April 22, 2007) 20.]

["Children at School A consumed more baked foods, chips, sodas, gelatin desserts, and candies and less low fat dairy, and dark bread than those at School B. Children at School A watched more television and spent more time in front of the computer than children studying at School B.... The School A neighborhood (with lower incomes) was perceived to be less walkable than the School B neighborhood. Children at both schools were overweight and there was no difference in their mean body/mass index scores."]

[“Federal health officials unveiled strict new standards that could force dozens of organ programs to give up precious federal funding or have it pulled from them. The new rules require that transplant programs perform an average of 10 transplants a year to receive and keep their Medicare funding. Any program served by a single transplant surgeon must notify patients that the surgeon might not be available at the time an organ becomes available.” Los Angeles Times (March 23, 2007) 1.]

[“For the past several years, there has been interest in proposals that would cover the uninsured through a combination of new federal health insurance tax credits and expansion of state Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance programs.... This report presents the results of a project that focused on the issues and problems of administering such initiatives.... A nationwide 'Medicaid + Tax Credits' initiative to cover 47 million uninsured persons, in more than 50 federal-state programs, would pose unprecedented, large, and complex administrative challenges for both the public and private
sectors.”]

[“As Congress debates reauthorizing the state Children's Health Insurance Program, a report shows that more working parents are losing their employer-sponsored health insurance and need to rely on public health insurance programs for their children. The national report shows 47 percent of working parents earning moderate salaries are offered health insurance through their employers, a nine percent drop nationally over the past decade.” Detroit News (March 14, 2007) 1.]